Holiday Time
 

We are off for a week in Guilin, Longsheng and Yangshuo - yipee! Weather forecast is 50 - 60% chance of thunderstorms so I guess that means 40 - 50% chance of no thunderstoms yeah!

Happy 4th to all concern!!

Yes, a happy 4th to one and all. I'm back home this afternoon from a long drive (but a short time) to Houston Texas where it was 106 degrees!! Yikes!!

Enjoy your time away, hanuman. Brad appears in BKK once again, arriving late Monday night. He is only in the city for about 12 days, so you may or may not have a chance to get together. He still has his same phone number. I'll be back over for 12 days in August, if you are around.

Carol

Thanks Carol!

Mid - late August I plan on going to Kenya but only for 8 days so there's a good chance that I'll be back while you're here.

I'll be there from late on the 7th until I fly home on the 19th. Maeng and I will go to Samui for 2 days right in the middle of that time.

Hope to meet up again.

Carol

Have a great time, Pook!

I was uber-jealous of your Lijiang trip--can't wait to see the pics from Yangshuo. Those are the 2 places (the ONLY 2 places) I really want to visit in China.

You and your family have a fantastic trip!

bon voyage to the 3 of you....

B&K

Thanks Will, Bob & Karen. We're leaving the house now and will report back with pictures.

Relaxing at the Bangkok Airways lounge at the moment enjoying the free wi-fi. For wine lovers here are some duty free prices from Bangkok Airport:

Opus 1 vintage 2004 = 12,000 Baht
Dominus = 9,600 Baht
Lynch-Bages vintage 2005 = 3,900 Baht
Several Grand Cru of recent vintage from 2,500 - 7,000 Baht
They are now selling several magnums here.

Have a great trip, Pook - looking forward to your report.

buy and chill as appropriate

Have a wonderful trip! I'm looking forward to our report and photos!

Have fun! Do not compromise the mission.

Have fun in China!

I'll be in Bangkok when you return.

Thanks guys!

The road outside our hotel was flooded when we arrive last night and we had to enter the hotel from the back entrance! The rooms at the Sheraton in Guilin are very comfortable with great beds but the club lounge is quite dated.

must take you back to your LA days, entering through the back door...

what.....?

Hanuman celebrating July 4? Bob with cryptic posts? The forces of entropy are upon us!

The rain has finally stop! Better forecast from here onward yeah!!!

Andy - I'm a US citizen too!

Happy July 4! we have firwork on the Hudson River this year.

The River Li cruise has been suspended due to heavy rain.

The worst flooding I had seen in Guilin was in 1993 when water level covered the street and came up almost to the gate of Sheraton Hotel.

Not much to do other than getting some booze at the ground floor lounge or having a foot massage.

Both the Cathay restaurant on the G/F and the western dining room on the mezzanine are suburb.

I guess the market selling "no money" T shirt and the entire walking street are not open now.

aloha pook, i hope you and your family have a good time in china. there must be alot of "thai" food there. :-)

roasting in lv.

Use discretion if people have to take the Longsheng village excursion to see ethnic group and terrace rice.

Years ago I had been trying to kick off the tour.
I had to stop after a couple of traffic accidents with casualties.

They took place after heavy rain.

I think we are going to start building our own ark here in the midwest. Rain-rain-rain.

Hanuman, you and your family enjoy yourselves. Relax, shop, drink some wine, eat great food, chill out... you know, be on a vacation!

Happy 4th everyone.

cat1234,

Thanks for the warning and your advice. We are not risk takers when it come to safety. It was flooded knee deep when we arrived on Friday night but the water has receded the next morning and now there are no sign of the flood. Here are some update from Guilin:

Elephant trunk hill closed due to flooding. Walking street, shops, restaurants are all open. Li River cruise openning as of today. The 4 lake cruise, great night cruise, open. Longsheng open upon the discretion of the driver or guide but we are not going. Yao moutain plus all of the caves are open.

The weather has cleared up nicely but the temperature is still a bit cool for us since we were not prepared for the it.

Ken & Carol,

Yes we are relaxing thank you and a nice trip so far. Food around here is quite good but the massages are expensive compared to Thailand. Off to breakfast and another day out on the town.

Correction - the elephant trunk hill is closed due to the HIGH water level on the Li river not flooding.

If you go out from the door of Sheraton Guilin facing river side, make a left, either the first or second block, make another left, keep going I think it’s the first block again, you make a right, keep going another 2 or 3 minutes, there are tons of massage parlors not sex related.
They only charge about 15 to 20 rmb per hour.
Some run by the blind people.

If you are using the business center internet next to conciege, again go out from the door of Sheraton Guilin facing river side, make a left, in 10 minutes, you will come to a bridge called liberation bridge.
Cross liberation bridge, at the end of the bridge, on the left hand side, there is an internet café at the basement of the short building, the place was one time an air raid shelter in the 1960s.

Guilin is a good place for small gifts, table clothes, machine made embroidery, fake jades or cheap luggage bags
available in the nite market.

The "Professors" galleries are tourist traps.

There are also double deck buses for tourists on the main street, Zhong Shan Lu.

A free waterfall show every nite at 8:15pm at the waterfall hotel by the city square.

The shopping arcade under city square is worth to take a look, not much for tourist to buy though.

thanks Cat. We found it and it only cost 25 CNY per hour!

Chinese tour directors/guide would never tell people to go to this low cost place in China because there is no kick back.

They usually send people to a massage place located at the right hand corner in front of the "walking street", if walking out from the side door of Sheraton Guilin.

That place charge about 100 to 120 rmb per hour, the Chinese tour director/guide get 50 or 60 rmb kick back.

Let me just copy & paste from what I just wrote on another topic in this forum.

"I am convinced with Peter N-H in this forum that people should travel by themselves in China without going thru tour agents.

It is easy to make hotel reservations on line.

All Chinese airports has public transportations to downtown.
Street cab, subway, public bus, mini bus are all over.

Moreover, stay away from the Chinese tour operators, Chinese tour directors/guides as far as possible to avoid rip off and waste a lot of travel time in scamming shopping stops.

Those who still want to join group tour should pick up tour companies sending along a tour director from your home country, not one from Shanghai or Beijing, to accompany trip members and to supplement local guides.
This is worth paying more for.

Some guides might make up stories like people were robbed or picked pocket with passport stolen in the area so their chickens would stay in the farm. They would sell some optional tours instead."

Chinese tour directors/guide would never tell people to go to this low cost place in China because there is no kick back.

They usually send people to a massage place located at the right hand corner in front of the "walking street", if walking out from the side door of Sheraton Guilin.

That place charge about 100 to 120 rmb per hour, the Chinese tour director/guide get 50 or 60 rmb kick back.

Chinese tour directors/guide would never tell people to go to this low cost place in China because there is no kick back.

They usually send people to a massage place located at the right hand corner in front of the "walking street", if walking out from the side door of Sheraton Guilin.

That place charge about 100 to 120 rmb per hour, the Chinese tour director/guide get 50 or 60 rmb kick back.

Let me just copy & paste from what I just wrote on another topic in this forum.

"I am convinced with Peter N-H in this forum that people should travel by themselves in China without going thru tour agents.

It is easy to make hotel reservations on line.

All Chinese airports has public transportations to downtown.
Street cab, subway, public bus, mini bus are all over.

Moreover, stay away from the Chinese tour operators, Chinese tour directors/guides as far as possible to avoid rip off and waste a lot of travel time in scamming shopping stops.

Those who still want to join group tour should pick up tour companies sending along a tour director from your home country, not one from Shanghai or Beijing, to accompany trip members and to supplement local guides.
This is worth paying more for.

Some guides might make up stories like people were robbed or picked pocket with passport stolen in the area so their chickens would stay in the farm. They would sell some optional tours instead."

Let me just copy & paste from what I just wrote on another topic in this forum.

"I am convinced with Peter N-H in this forum that people should travel by themselves in China without going thru tour agents.

It is easy to make hotel reservations on line.

All Chinese airports has public transportations to downtown.
Street cab, subway, public bus, mini bus are all over.

Moreover, stay away from the Chinese tour operators, Chinese tour directors/guides as far as possible to avoid rip off and waste a lot of travel time in scamming shopping stops.

Those who still want to join group tour should pick up tour companies sending along a tour director from your home country, not one from Shanghai or Beijing, to accompany trip members and to supplement local guides.
This is worth paying more for."

Hanuman, Sorry for the mess and take up your space.

Cat,

We're here on our own no guide just past reviews from Fodorites and TA plus advices from people like your self. Off to Yangshuo today. Weather lovely now.

I hope the good weather holds for you!

Most likely you want to see the Sanjie Liu show.
The theater is an open area.
Bring mosquito repellent with you.
Free raincoat will be provided.
It won't rain!

Ha ha I hope you're right that it wouldn't rain!

Kathie - nice for us is lightly scattered clouds and temperature in the mid to low 20s. Not too good for taking photographs but good for us.